


Something Greater

by missmichellebelle



Series: Through the Kaleidoscope [7]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Pianist, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Non-Binary Hange Zoë, Romance, pianist levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 19:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4847582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“<i>Fucking christ</i>, Eren. It’s already after two in the afternoon. How long did you plan on keeping me on this couch?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Greater

**Author's Note:**

> DUDE YOU GUYS. SOMEONE DREW FANART FOR THE LAST PART. [LOOK HOW PRETTY IT IS](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/129525569355/inmedio-will-i-ever-know-levis-eyes-fly). OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH. ;u; THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
> 
> I realized, while writing this, that I've never established all of their ages with you guys because my age gaps are all over the fucking place and not at all similar to canon. basically, Levi is 32 (going on 33) and Eren is 23, and then Hanji is around Levi's age and Erwin is nearly 40. good? good.
> 
> there's a lot of stuff that happens in this part. it's like. everywhere. hopefully not in a bad way? D;
> 
> I take quite a dive into Levi and how he views things like intimacy and what-not in here. I'm not going to label Levi as anything in particular, especially since I feel that a lot of people who are older and not as exposed to the realm of sexuality and all the information there is available out there as a lot of us are blessed to be, I just wrote how Levi feels without slapping any labels on it. take it as you like, but if you want to talk more in depth about it, that's what tumblr's for, silly (or comments, I suppose).
> 
> otherwise the first like 2k are about kissing. which is why this has a soft T rating instead of a G, because I'm erring on the side of caution here I guess? lol.
> 
> sorry not sorry. ;*

Kissing is one of those things that Levi never remembers to miss. Not surprising, considering how he feels about his personal space and people invading it without his permission (which is practically all the time, because he rarely gives _anyone_ permission). And while kissing isn’t the most intimate of practices, the idea of it regularly makes him wrinkle his nose and scowl. Mouths are filthy, and also one of the easiest ways to contract a disease, and he has to trust that the other person actually takes proper care of their mouth and isn’t plagued with something like _gingivitis_. It’s easier to just avoid kissing all together.

Which is easier to preach than to practice when Eren Jaeger is the one kissing you.

Not that Levi hadn’t had an aversion to Eren kissing him, although there were a myriad of reasons behind it that transcended Levi’s general distaste for germs. Reasons surrounding the obvious age gap between them, or the friendship that stretched between them as thin and tenuous as a spider’s web, or Levi’s obvious lack of experience in the realm of _feelings_ and _romance_. But aside from that, there was always a general fear of Eren’s mouth, despite the obvious fact that he took amazing care of his teeth. Levi isn’t sure if he was so scared of what lay behind Eren’s lips so much as what they might just pull out of him.

Because he has an obvious attraction to Eren. Has an appreciation for the slope of his neck into his shoulders, or the lines that form his waist, or the shape of his nose or the bow of his lips or the color of his eyes. Like looking at individual pieces of a puzzle and somehow, miraculously, finding all of them breathtaking and still woefully unprepared for the image they create when they’re all linked together.

And yet Levi’s never imagined kissing Eren, or touching him extensively. Has never imagined more than running his fingers very carefully along the soft, warm skin on the underside of Eren’s exposed forearm. Of having Eren falling asleep on his couch in the middle of the afternoon, or padding around his kitchen in socks whipping up a snack when he realize that Levi didn’t have breakfast that morning. Maybe of what his hair might look like, splayed over one of Levi’s slate pillow covers, and Levi had always been quick to dismiss that particular thought.

And then Eren had kissed him. And it had still invaded Levi’s personal space. Had made his entire body tense until Eren had coaxed all that still air out of his lungs. And it was still a little gross. Eren’s lips were too slick, like he’d applied chapstick about 800 times before he’d come over, and his mouth was too hot, and his breath was faintly minty but mostly stale.

But Levi had found it hard to concentrate on those things when he had Eren’s fingers in his hair, and Eren’s laughter slipping into his own mouth, and as disgusting as the idea of the act had been, it was hard to hold onto that mindset with the subtle hints of pleasure that buzzed in his lips the longer Eren paid them attention, that traveled warm and sluggish through the rest of his body like a river of molten lava.

Which is probably why Levi keeps letting Eren do it—it seems he has as much as thing for kissing Levi as Levi does for Eren kissing him.

It’s the height of summer and Levi’s balcony doors are firmly shut to keep the cool air in and the hot humidity _out_. But he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t turned his thermostat down an extra degree or five lately, since no matter how frigid his apartment seems to be, Levi is always running too warm these days.

It probably has something to do with the extra body that always seems to be smothering him. The one that currently has him pressed into cushions of his own couch.

“How old are you again?” Levi asks, his voice rough and breathing harsh in a way that is altogether too embarrassing. He stares up at the ceiling and Eren’s nose travels the length of his jaw, his chuckles hitting the column of his throat as puffs of air and Levi can’t help but wonder how it’s possible to shudder when he’s so fucking hot at the same time?

“What?” Eren asks, and the state of his voice makes Levi feel slightly less vulnerable about his own. “Still 23, last I checked.” Eren’s thumb brushes over Levi’s hipbone and he presses his head back, which seems to have been Eren’s intention, if the way his lips skim the juncture between Levi’s neck and shoulder is any indication. “Wait.” Eren is suddenly looking him in the eye, fully looming over Levi’s body now, and Levi’s not sure if he hates or maybe-sort-of-likes how small Eren makes him feel. “Why?”

“Because you’re acting like a goddamn teenager,” Levi breathes out. Eren makes out with him like they’re 17 and sneaking around in the back of a car or some shit. Not that Levi did a lot of making out when he was a teenager, or a young adult, or—well, ever, really.

Eren laughs again, actually looking sheepish at the comment before hiding his face in Levi’s neck.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, words buzzing against Levi’s skin, and Levi strokes his hand up and down the length of Eren’s back, enjoying the illusion of being taller than Eren as he presses his cheek into the soft down of Eren’s hair and closes his eyes. “Does it—” Eren stops, then starts again. “If it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll stop.” He sounds ashamed, like he hadn’t thought about it before.

Levi muses over the question, still trailing his fingers over the bumps in Eren’s spine. Does it make him uncomfortable? He thinks about how heavy his limbs feel, how chapped his lips are, how hot he feels. He considers the tightness in the base of his abdomen, the anticipation of _more_ that sits coiled and waiting like a snake prepared to strike at any moment. It’s not comfortable, he deduces, but it’s not _uncomfortable_ , especially not in the way Eren is clearly hinting at.

“No,” Levi deduces, and he feels Eren’s body relax against his, and finds that this particularly sensation—of having Eren everywhere, all at once, close and present and so tangibly _there_ —is one that he could get very used to.

“You’d tell me if it was?” Eren’s voice still sounds so small. Levi snorts.

“Have I ever not told you when I’ve found something annoying as fuck?” Levi counters, and then Eren is in front of him again, denying Levi his brief headrest but giving him the gift of Eren’s smile. He tips forward until their lips brush.

“No,” Eren responds, and then sighs against Levi’s mouth. Levi crinkles his nose. “Still, though. I didn’t mean to…” he averts his eyes and bites his lip, and while Levi very rarely initiates any of the kissing, he has the sudden urge to sooth over the place Eren’s teeth scratched. “I think I just want to kiss you as much as possible before…” he stops again, but this time he doesn’t look like he plans on continuing.

Levi finds himself running his finger over the slightly reddened places on Eren’s lips where he’d dug his teeth in, and Eren looks surprised at the gesture for a moment before he presses his lips to the pad of Levi’s finger. It’s the fucking chastest thing they’ve done since Eren showed up at his apartment sometime ago (shit, how long have they been making out on Levi’s couch?), but it still makes Levi feel like he’s going to throw his heart up and onto the carpet.

“Before?” Levi prompts, sounding strangled. He’s sure anyone would, with their heart lodged that far up their chest cavity.

Eren shakes his head, and then smiles at Levi, and then leans down to kiss him and Levi finds his hand curled around Eren’s cheek. It’s tender, and sweet, but it doesn’t erase the hanging end of Eren’s sentence from Levi’s mind.

 _Before_ what? Before Levi comes to his senses and leaves Eren behind? Before Eren does the same? Before something comes along to shatter this strange glass ball they’ve both been inhabiting? Before they’re both forced to wake up?

_Before what?_

Levi wishes he could assure Eren that there is no impending doom in their future. That Levi won’t ever try to back out, that Eren won’t get fed up, that something else in the world won’t fuck everything up, but there are no such promises to be made. And while Levi can’t stop himself from lying (completely), or from keeping things to himself, or from being an overall stubborn asshole, he can keep himself from making promises that he knows could so very easily be broken.

So he pushes up into the kiss more fervently, and Eren pushes back, falling into it and somehow managing to drag Levi in deeper despite the fact that he had sort of started it.

He realizes that time sort of stops meaning anything when they’re tangled up like this, and Levi could lose hours in the cage of Eren’s arms, under the relentless but almost worshipping touch of his lips, and knows he doesn’t have that luxury.

“I do have to practice at some point today,” Levi manages as they break for air, and Eren nuzzles his cheek and Levi wonders if a heart can break from being too full.

“But you don’t have anymore shows,” Eren counters.

“Idiot,” Levi mutters, and the fondness in his own voice surprises him. Not because he’s blind to his own feelings so much anymore (although he still does keep most of them under lock and key, where he doesn’t have to dwell on the scope or mass of them), but because he let them bleed through so freely. “You want me to get rusty?” It’s said in jest, but Levi can feel the slight swell of panic at the thought. He can’t even remember the last time he’d skipped a day of practice.

“It’s just one day.”

“That’s how it starts.” Levi ruffles his hair, and Eren pouts at him even as he presses into the touch like some kind of pet cat.

“Fine,” Eren relents, but doesn’t move to let Levi free. “In a few minutes.”

“ _Eren_ ,” Levi starts to scold, but then his mouth is quickly preoccupied doing other things, and while he’s very sure he could wrestle Eren off of him, what’s a few more minutes?

There is the very sudden and startling noise of Levi’s front doorknob rattling, and they both go still as they pull apart in their surprise, turning to stare towards the hallway.

“What was that?” Eren asks, voice dropped to a cautious whisper. Levi’s eyebrows pinch in confusion, and then they hear the sound again.

“It sounds like someone trying to get into my apartment,” Levi remarks, more annoyed at the prospect than scared. He slept under a bridge or on benches or in playgrounds for several years of his life—he knows how to defend himself, need be.

“Like a burglar?” Eren’s voice is barely audible, and he sounds a little spooked.

“At— _fucking christ_ , Eren. It’s already after two in the afternoon. How long did you plan on keeping me on this couch?”

Eren glances at him, smiles a little slyly, and the rattling doorknob has stopped so maybe whoever the fuck is trying to break and enter has given up, and—

“LEVI!” A voice bellows, followed by the slap of a hand against the door. It’s not a knock. It is very clearly the sound of someone banging their entire palm against the surface. “You changed your locks again! My key doesn’t work!”

“Oh god,” Levi mutters at the same time that Eren skews his face up in confusion and asks, “Who’s that?”

Levi glances at Eren—at his disheveled hair, and clothes, and altogether slightly debauched appearance—and really doesn’t want to know what he looks like. He has half a mind to ask Eren to hide, or to scale down to his apartment from Levi’s balcony. Would that even be physically possible? Probably, but it would be dangerous, and there isn’t enough time to fashion some sort of—

“LEVI!” They call again. “I know you’re in there! Never mind that you never leave, but I called Erwin on my way over!”

That fucking bastard.

“Levi, who is that?” Eren asks, voice now at a regular volume because there’s no way they’ll be heard over the sound of the knocking.

“He also told me he met Eren!”

Levi’s eyes widen, and Eren looks at him with renewed interest.

“Why didn’t you tell me that he met Eren _before_ me? I’ve been asking to meet him for months, you jerk! I’m your best friend, I think I deserve to meet this boy who’s got you playing sappy piano ballads!”

“You told your best friend about me?” Eren asks, managing to sound both shy and cocky all at once, and Levi scowls at him.

“Not the time,” he grunts, and does actually push Eren off of him this time as he scrambles to standing. He runs his fingers through his hair, straightening his shirt, and Eren snorts from where he’s now kneeling on the couch.

“LEVI!” Hanji screams again, and he groans.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GIVE ME A SECOND!” He yells back, and the pounding stops.

“Here.” Eren is before him, fixing his hair and smoothing out his collar, his touches gentle and lingering a little too long. “So I get to meet your best friend, huh?”

“I wouldn’t call them that,” Levi retorts, even if Hanji is sort of the closest thing he has to that. “Just. Don’t answer any of their questions. Or ask them any questions. Or make eye contact.”

Eren seems amused. “Them? How many best friends you got out there, exactly?” He peers around Levi towards the door, as if he’d be able to see through it, and—right. Levi always forgets that part.

“Just the one.”

Eren shoots him a confused glance.

“They/their pronouns,” Levi explains, crossing his arms and quirking his eyebrow as if asking Eren to challenge it. It’s a strange feeling—he’s defended Hanji to many people over the years, but it’s weird feeling protective over them when the person he’s facing down is _Eren_. Especially given that, in this situation, Eren is the one he should be protecting.

But he’s cut ties with people over a lot less, and slighting Hanji—or anyone Levi values in his life, really—is a deal breaker.

Huh. He wasn’t aware that he _had_ deal breakers, but then again, he’s never really had any sort of regular romantic relationship in his life so it isn’t all that surprising that he didn’t know.

Wait, is that what this is? A regular romantic relationship?

“Okay,” Eren says on the end of Levi’s intense stare, and Levi nods. He reaches out to fix Eren’s hair, and tries to keep his body temperature under control at the affectionate way Eren looks at him.

“LEVI!” Hanji calls again, and Levi sighs before walking briskly towards the hallway, shooting one more slightly panicked look at Eren. But Eren just gives him a thumbs up and a reassuring smile, which, surprisingly, actually reassures Levi.

A little bit.

“Can’t you ever just call like a normal person?” Levi asks as he wrenches open the door. “I have neighbors, you know.”

“Because you ignore all my phone calls,” Hanji points out immediately, and then glances around the hallway like they forgot they were in an apartment building. “Whoops,” they say in a sing-song, before pushing past Levi and into the hallway. “Maybe I was hoping to lure out a certain muse, seeing as everybody in the world but _me_ has met him, and—oh.”

Levi stares into the hallway, knowing full well that Hanji has just stumbled across Eren and not at all prepared for what this collision is going to mean.

“Hi,” Eren’s disembodied voice says, all politeness and charm. “I’m Eren.”

A beat, then two, and then Hanji’s voice with a high-pitched but demanding, “Levi,” calling him into the living room. Levi stares longingly at the hallway, and wonders how much the two people in his apartment would hate him if he left and how much he cares.

With a sigh, he shuts the door and turns to face whatever doom awaits him.

“He hired you, didn’t he?”

Hanji has Eren’s hand firmly gripped between both of their own, staring at him fiercely, and he shoots Levi a look that is both worried and a little scared.

“Um?” He answers, and Levi understands. People who aren’t used to Hanji very rarely are prepared to deal with them.

“Hanji, leave him alone,” Levi drawls, and their eyes immediately focus on him.

“Levi, this boy is _gorgeous_. Where did you find him?”

“Outside my door,” Levi responds, because he had.

“Ha! I knew it! You totally hired him. This isn’t the real Eren. This is some model or actor or… Or something.” Hanji turns back on Eren, eyes scrutinizing him, and Eren sends Levi a desperate look that very clearly screams _help me_.

“You’re right. I absolutely knew that you would be back in town today, unanounced, and that you would show up at my apartment at this exact time, also unannounced, and had the foresight to hire a fake Eren because that sounds exactly like something I would do.”

“That doesn’t sound anything like something you’d do,” Hanji corrects, matter-of-factly, and then seems to realize that they’ve derailed their own assumption. Their grip on Eren tightens if his sudden look of pain is any indication. “Then this is the _real_ Eren?!” Hanji gasps, voice raising at least five decibels, and Levi strides over and carefully extracts Eren from Hanji’s death grip.

“Yes?” Eren offers, carefully, and Levi checks over his hand for any damages.

“Does this hurt?” Levi asks, prodding at a certain spot, and Eren shakes his head. Hanji suddenly and inexplicably gasps. Levi slants a glare in their direction. “What?” He sneers, in annoyance, watching as their eyes bounce from Eren to him and back again like a set of ping pong balls.

“You two are dating!” Hanji shrieks, far too loud, making the silence that follows particularly potent. They both stare at them, Eren’s hand still in Levi’s grasp.

“How—” Eren starts to ask, but then Levi shoots him a look, telling him to _shut the fuck up_.

“Aha!” Hanji claps in excitement. “I bet Erwin doesn’t know _that_ ,” they declare, as if it’s some sort of competition. Knowing the both of them, Levi wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it was. They turn their glinting eyes on Eren. “How long has this been going on?”

“Uh,” Eren starts, and Levi closes his eyes and tries to find any iota of patience within himself. What did he tell the brat about not answering any of their questions.

“Eren,” Levi silences him.

“Now, now,” Hanji coaxes. “Let the boy speak, Levi. Besides, from your unwillingness to answer, I already know I’m right.” They shoot him a wolfish grin. “No point trying to keep things from me.”

There is definitely a point, like the one where Levi doesn’t like discussing his personal life. Then again, he hadn’t expected Hanji to just fall into it like a fucking canon ball, either.

Levi glances at Eren, who is staring back at him. He’s following Levi’s lead, that much is obvious, and Levi sighs, rubbing at the meat of Eren’s palm for a second before releasing his hand. A few more seconds, and he might have done something embarrassing, like kiss it. He gives a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’ll make some tea.”

“ _Levi_ ,” Eren croaks in panic, just as Hanji’s hand grabs Levi’s wrist.

“Oh no you don’t. The tea can wait.” They haul Levi onto the couch, and Eren follows unsurely after. Hanji gestures towards the space next to where Levi is moodily slouched, and Eren sits tentatively. His hand immediately settles between Levi’s shoulder blades, trying to rub some of the tension out, and Levi would have maybe shot him a look of gratitude if Hanji hadn’t started cooing.

“So,” Hanji wheedles. “How long?” Again, the question is directed at Eren.

“Um.” Eren shoots another glance at Levi, who gives a wave of his hand, telling Eren to _go ahead_. They could keep fighting it, but the longer they do, the longer Hanji will keep them on the couch and the longer Levi has to go without tea and, fucking hell, he still has to _practice_ at some point today. “About a week?”

“Really?” Hanji brightens with enthusiasm. “Now, Eren, and answer me completely honestly—how does someone as gorgeous as you end up with our grumpy little pianist over here?” Hanji sends Levi a smile, and he scowls back at them. “I mean, he doesn’t have all that much to offer. Poor social skills, a frankly undying devotion to his music and his career, that weird cleaning quirk of his. I guess he has fame and money, though. Those things must be appealing.”

Ah. Levi gets it now. He almost smiles, glancing over at Hanji and the way they are hyper focused on Eren. His reactions, his body language. Hanji is testing him, which… Well, Levi kind of expected. He just figured it would be a lot more direct.

“I actually didn’t know until about a month ago,” Eren says, and him and Levi look at each other. Eren is still a little disgruntled by it. “I heard him playing the piano and I thought he was, like, really good, but I had no idea he was famous.”

“The Brad Pitt of classical piano,” Levi remarks dryly, and Eren laughs, elbowing him.

“Shut up,” he mumbles, ears pink at the reminder of his rather bizarre comparison. “But, I mean, he’s not great with a lot of people, but so what? It makes the relationships he does have, or the times when he does put forth the effort, all the more special, you know? And the way he pours himself into his music, the way he loves it, is admirable. It’s a part of what makes him amazing, it doesn’t detract from that, and—” Eren’s words falter, as if he finally realizes what he’s saying while Levi is sitting right beside him, and Levi stares at him, eyes a little wide.

“…and the cleaning thing is cute, all right?” He finishes in a mumble, gripping his hair and looking away in embarrassment, and Levi wants to kiss him. Levi is still particularly new to this sensation, but holy fuck, he wants to kiss Eren so badly that it’s taking everything in him not to do it.

“So you can stop trying to see if I’m some kind of gold digger,” Eren finally says, and then Levi stares at his fingers as Eren’s find them and lace through them. He looks up at Eren again, but Eren is looking at Hanji. “It’s not like that.” Eren’s gaze is fierce and determined and truthful, like he can convince them with just the fire in his eyes.

Levi feels brittle, suddenly. Like his entire body will crumble into dust at the slightest gust of wind, but so long as Eren’s holding his hand, he won’t fall apart.

“I see,” Hanji says quietly. The pause that follows lasts five wonderful seconds, and then Hanji’s voice is rattling Levi’s attention again. “So Eren—tell me about yourself. What do you do? Where do you live? Are you still in school? Do _you_ play any musical instruments? What’s the most outrageous song you’ve gotten Levi to play? Are you guys sleeping together yet?”

“ _Hanji_.” Levi glares at them, and they grin, and Eren laughs.

Levi looks at him again, at the way his eyes crinkle at the corners, at the bright flash of his teeth, and the way the laughter works his throat, and he can feel the vibrations of it in his hand, in the entire right side of his body where it’s tucked against Eren’s.

It feels like Levi is… A part of something. A piece. That him and Eren seated together on the couch diagonal from Hanji in an armchair are some kind of unit. A team, maybe? That doesn’t seem right. A duo? A force to be reckoned with?

Eren leans his cheek against the top of Levi’s head, and Levi can feel his voice at the same time that he can hear it as he starts to (carefully) navigate answering Hanji’s questions.

 _Couple_. That’s it. Maybe all of those other things, too, but this half-of-a-whole feeling that’s not nearly as unpleasant as Levi thought it would be is a part of being a _couple_. Maybe because he’s still whole on his own, when Eren is gone, but together they make something greater, something that only exists when it’s the two of them. Something that Levi aches for when he’s away from it.

He squeezes Eren’s hand, and Eren’s thumb swipes over his knuckles, and if Hanji wasn’t watching, Levi would close his eyes and sink into this feeling and stay there for as long as he possibly could.

**Author's Note:**

> [read, reblog, & like on tumblr](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/129594572770/something-greater)


End file.
